Tyler Cote | Maine

When most anglers think of Maine thoughts tend to turn towards bait busting stripers in the surf or brook trout in cold, clear, mountain streams for those with a sweetwater disposition. In reality, the best part of Maine angling isn’t any one specific thing. Yes there are stripers and brook trout, but in between the Downeast Coast  and the Appalachians to the west, you can find freestone browns, tailwater rainbows, big river smallmouth, deep water lake trout, sea run Atlantic Salmon, rice flat carp, bait shredding bluefish, and big lake largemouth. And that’s only to name the A-listers. Well some of them, because for many freshwater fly anglers in Maine, the absolute rockstar king would be the Landlocked Atlantic Salmon-  or simply “Landlocks” to the locals.

Landlocks are the freshwater counterparts to their sea run cousins. They behave virtually the same, with the mature fish making their way into large, deep lakes (rather than the sea) where they grow fat foraging on freshwater rainbow smelt, which is also a landlocked counterpart to a sea run cousin. Lakes with names like Chamberlain, Flagstaff, Rangeley, Richardson, West Grand, and Sebago, to name only a few, mean landlocks. In the spring the salmon can be found in the tributaries of these lakes chasing spawning smelt and will greedily whack a classic streamer pattern such as the Gray Ghost which imitates the smelt nicely. After the smelt runs have tapered off and as the waters begin to warm, the best specimens often slip away into the depths of the lakes to continue hunting their favorite pray. By fall, they return to spawn for themselves in rivers with names like Dead, Kennebec, Rapid, Grand Lake Stream, Roach, Kennebago and Crooked, again naming only a few. In the rivers they behave like any salmonid, and will take dead drifted nymphs, sip dry flies, and chase a streamer when the conditions are right. But as the season progresses and the big males begin to stake out their turf, often a bright colored classic streamer like the Barnes Special with flashes of red and yellow will rule the day.

When hooked, landlocks live up to the reputation of their salt water cousins. The jump, often two or three times their body length out of the water. They run, do the head shakes, jump, jump again, repeat the sequence, and then if you are really unlucky, they will roll on the tippet almost assuring a lost fish. The pics contained here are a collection of the these fish and the places you will go to find them.